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Friday, February 22, 2013

Homemade Butter

Homemade butter is so simple and delicious. I have to admit that I don't usually make our butter since we have a local dairy that supplies the groceries around here, but I still do it now and then because it's fun!

Also, knowing how to make butter is a great skill to have. Sometimes it's easier to whip up a batch of butter instead of getting out of the house to go to the store...and you never know when some basic homesteading skills might come in handy.

Bonus: making fresh butter means you also get fresh buttermilk!

Ingredients:

Cream (any quantity; I usually use a pint)
Salt (optional)

Directions:

Pour cream into a blender or food processor. (I actually had better results this time using a bowl and my immersion blender, but you likely have a better quality blender than I do.)

Blend the cream until it separates into butter and buttermilk. The butter will begin to look chunky and yellowish, and then a milky liquid will start to separate from the butter solids. Turn off the blender at this point.

Pour the buttermilk out of your blender (through a strainer, if you feel you need one) into a measuring cup or other container.

Be sure to save it! Lots of recipes call for fresh buttermilk, but it's not something a lot of us have on hand day-to-day. At the very least, you can make buttermilk pancakes or use it on your cereal in the next couple of days. You will likely have to press on the butter with a spoon or spatula (or your fingers!) to squeeze out all of the buttermilk. Remove as much as you can to save it, because we're about to wash the rest away.

(This step is optional, but it makes the butter last much longer than if you omit it.) Wash the butter by adding about a cup of cold water to the blender with the butter and blending for about a minute. When you're finished, you'll have to repeat the straining & squeezing, as you did to remove the buttermilk (only there's no need to save the butter-washing water).

(Second optional step) If you prefer salted butter, mix some salt into the butter. For a pint of cream, I find that a couple of dashes of salt is plenty.

Eat up!

If you're feeling really adventurous, mix in a couple tablespoons of honey to your butter to make a delicious honey butter.